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Curricula and exams

  • AP (advanced placement) coursework and exams (American system)

    Advanced Placement (AP) courses are curricula and exams created by the College Board (who also run the SAT I and II) and are much more rigorous than the general course offerings (including those characterized as "honours") at American high schools....and also very much needed to beef up normal US high school diplomas if one is applying to a US uni (although IB courses will also do the job).

  • British exam results: interpreting the scores

    Interpreting British Exam Results and What To Ask the School. The first question is, who is allowed to take them? It is extremely difficult to divine this for an international school – they can give so many excuses for such a transient population. Are pupils allowed to take any exam they want to, whether or not the school thinks they are up to it? Do the scores include ESL (English as a Second Language) students? 

  • The American curriculum (although a better name would be '50 states 50 curricula')

    The very name "American Curriculum" is a misnomer, since technically there is no such thing in the way that there is a National Curriculum of England, or a French national curriculum. All fifty states and most major cities/school districts (often county-wide, not just one city) set their own curriculum frameworks, priorities, funding, standards, tests and scheduling.

  • The European Baccalaureate: the European schools

    One of the lesser-known mysteries of the EU is the existence of the European Schools that lead to the European Baccalaureate. These schools were launched in the 1950s to serve the children who are dependents of employees of the European Institutions that are run under the auspices of the EU. The schools are funded by the EU and their dependents pay no tuition. Consequently, several of the schools are in Brussels, seat of the EU, and the others are located in Spain, Italy, Germany, Italy, UK, Luxembourg (where the largest schools is) and The Netherlands.

  • The International Baccalaureate explained

    Only someone like Mary Langford, who has set up, run, and inspected IB schools herself, could produce such a clear, condensed, no-frills treatise on this popular curriculum that is gaining momentum around the world with the speed of a rip tide.

  • The International Primary Curriculum Explained

    We contacted the office of the IPC for information to round out our own article describing this interesting and fast growing curriculum (now almost 1,300 schools in over 63 countries are using it, 1000 of those in England, Wales and Scotland alone). They offered to write it for us, and we thought what they sent was so thorough and spot on (and certainly all you'll ever need to know about the IPC!), we'd publish as is.   

  • The UK national curriculum, examinations and qualifications

    The National Curriculum is the framework used by all state schools in England. Children work at different levels according to age and ability. There are 4 key stages, with national testing at the end of each (the fourth being GCSE at which point the national curriculum no longer applies). By the end of key stage 1 (age 7), the average child is expected to achieve national curriculum level 2; this rises to level 4 at the end of key stage 2 and level 5 or 6 by the end of key stage 3. Only the most able pupils will achieve a level 8 with an additional exceptional performance category for those who achieve beyond this. Such performance is rare. In exceptional cases, schools can choose to disapply weaker students from some elements of the national curriculum.


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